Brie Creates Religion

Hi all!

I wanted to talk a little bit about some work I did in the past on a game setting called A Deadly Affair. It was a game run by my husband +John Sheldon, originally in a modified D&D 3.5 system, then later a modified Pathfinder system. One of the biggest elements of the game was that players were able to build parts of the setting - species, religions, cultures, historical events. It was really cool! I got to be really involved in setting creation and John allowed me to build one of the religions for the game.

The religion was called the Nord. You can read some about it on the Deadly Affair wiki page on Obsidian Portal. In the religion, there are five gods. "Norric the cruel god of ice and cold, Eitne the chaotic god of the winds and herald of change, Shima the benevolent lord of the earth representing growth and life, Raer the demanding deity of fire and warmth, and the Unnamed – a treacherous god of magic, spirits, and deceit."

I spent a long time while I was growing up reading myths and legends about Norse and Greek polytheistic religions. I was a huge fan of them. This is part of why I wanted to create a religion specifically for A Deadly Affair.

One of the first things I did was determine whether I wanted to do a polytheistic religion, or stick with a single god, or something different. I was most familiar with the myths of polytheistic religions, so I picked that. I then wanted to pull from something recognizable to begin the definitions of the gods, and I picked a compass. Norric was the North, Raer the South, Shima the West, the Unnamed the East, and Eitne as the center, ever changing.

Once I had that down, I spent a lot of time on my own just thinking about it. I wish I'd taken the time to write down everything I thought of. Hindsight, you know? If I had written it down, though, there would have been a lot about the behaviors of the gods, the rituals of the priests, and the habits of the followers. There would have been descriptions of the avatars of the gods, and of the symbols carried by the followers.

I guess, I regret not writing them down. And I'm hoping to play the game again, so maybe I can get my stuff together and write down some new information to put in the Wiki, or on here. I hope that people enjoy whatever I choose to share when the time comes.

<3

What is Accessibility?

Lately I have been working on a project called Discovery. It's a teenage superheroes game. It's pretty simple, system-wise and concept-wise. The dilemma for me is my intentions for the game.

I want the whole game to be able to be explained in a less-than-10-minute video and be supported by a single-page character sheet. I mean, so far, not so hard, right? If it's super simple, someone can explain a game in 10 minutes (Archipelago, The Quiet Year, etc. - good examples of super low social footprint games with easy explanations - even Apocalypse World is pretty easy to explain in a few minutes). However, I have a combination of problems I'm working on.

It has to be a video with sound. Why? Because some people can't see. The video has to have subtitles. Like, absolutely has to. Why? Because some people can't hear well or process audio well. There has to be an accessible transcript so that people can translate it easily. These are all things I can easily manage with the help of my in-house video editor.

The character sheet has to be available in an easily-downloadable format. This is not an issue. However, the BIGGEST problem I have is the character sheet itself. It's purely visual. It requires someone to explain it. It can't be used by someone who can't see. I have no means of getting around this roadblock. I was tasked with finding a way around colorblindness, and I figured that letting people use their own color markers would work. However, I have not found a way around having a visual character sheet for a game that is about making a visual presentation of skills and emotions. Is it even possible? Is this a way I will fail in making my game accessible? Is it even failure?

One of the keys of this project is also for it to be free. This means that I can't do anything with it if I don't have +John Sheldon able to work on the video, which means I have to work around his schedule. It means I need to make sure to have a place to host it where downloading it for free is not an issue, where you don't have to sign up for membership.

So, I guess, my question is: where do we stop on accessibility? How much responsibility does a designer have to their consumers? How can we make games more accessible, and what does accessible really mean? There are boundaries that some people cannot cross due to accessibility issues, including comprehension issues, physical disability, and even financial limitations. How do I make my games meet those expectations?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments or on G+. I look forward to hearing them!

Five or So Questions with Rafael Chandler on The Astounding Antagonists

What was your inspiration for The Astounding Antagonists?

In comic books and films, people with superpowers commit violent acts in the name of justice. A while back, I started thinking about heroes, and how they might be designated as criminals or villains if their idea of 'justice' differed from the status quo. And the novel emerged from that idea.


Are these characters antiheroes, true heroes, or just freakin' awesome superheroes, and why?

In the novel, they're referred to as villains, and they embrace the term, because they steal, destroy, and kill. However, they believe that their actions are justified, so they do see themselves as heroic.


Tell me a little bit about Helen Damnation!

She's an blue-skinned extraterrestrial who wears a suit of high-tech armor developed by Dr. Agon. It turns out that the armor doesn't do what everybody thinks it does. Helen is somewhat contemptuous of any society that values material wealth. She likes dogs. She enjoys sweets. She's fiercely loyal to the people that she loves. Though she will not kill, she enjoys combat, and is quite proud of the scars that she has earned.

Your RPG work is known for being a little gore heavy. Is it the same with this work?

It's not particularly gory. Like my previous novel (Hexcommunicated), this is a fast-paced adventure. There's some violence, and if it were a movie, it'd be rated R -- but it's nothing like the splatterpunk work I do in RPGs.


What's up next for you, post-Astounding Antagonists?

I'm working on the second book in the Agent Tepes series; it's called Hextermination, and it features shoggoths, ghouls, and witches. Should be fun! Also, I'm nearly finished with my kickstarted monster manual, Lusus Naturae. Very excited about that.


Thanks so much for the interview, Brianna! The Astounding Antagonists is available here:

Amazon (Kindle):
http://www.amazon.com/Astounding-Antagonists-Rafael-Chandler-ebook/dp/B00OOXZGRQ

Amazon (print):
http://www.amazon.com/Astounding-Antagonists-Rafael-Chandler/dp/1502894548

Lulu (print):
http://www.lulu.com/shop/rafael-chandler/the-astounding-antagonists/paperback/product-21858531.html

Five or So Questions with Joshua Unruh

Check out this interview with Joshua Unruh on his new Patreon project! With this post, we're having a contest! If you become a Patron of Joshua on Patreon, then comment on this post, you'll be entered to win a copy of his book TEEN Agents in The Plundered Parent Protocol. Leave a means of contacting you in the comment so we can let you know if you've won!


Tell me a little bit about your project. What excites you about it?
The short explanation of the project is monthly, serialized bursts of superhero prose. Faster and cheaper than full comics, I'll get to tell exciting stories about people in colorful costumes punching their way to justice without needing a huge production team.

Two things excite me most about this project. First is the opportunity to tell superhero stories about heroes of my own creation that are different. I don't mean to say that I plan to reinvent the wheel with my superhero fiction. In fact, I hope to give the same thrilled feeling I had as a kid of following larger-than-life heroes through their serialized adventures. I stand on the shoulders of giants from Jack Kirby and Curt Swan through Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction, and they all reinvented things a bit as they went. But I do mean the heroes will be different. Different colors, different genders, different walks of life.

The second reason I'm excited about this project is how I expect it will stretch me as a writer. I've got outlines and have done some writing ahead, but not a ton. I want to see what happens when I'm under a deadline for a story and not even the sky is the limit. That, I feel, is one of the stronger things the superhero genre has going for it. Tight deadlines and no locks on "the rules" meant that the superhero genre has some delightfully weird tropes. Sometimes that resulted in crazy stories where Superman had the head of a lion. Sometimes it resulted in entire cities of super-intelligent gorillas or teenage super clubs from the future.

Weird, ridiculous, or amazing, these ideas literally couldn't have been created in any other situation. And I can't wait to see what a similar situation pushes me to create.


Talk to me a little about your three goals for your superhero fiction. What are they and why are they important?
The three goals for my superhero fiction are 1. Make it all ages, 2. make it fun, 3. make it diverse.

All ages is an important concept to me because, as an adult, I've realized just how much learning I did reading comics that didn't talk down to me. All ages doesn't mean "for kids." And even if it did, "for kids" too often means "talks to kids like they're stupid." I don't want that. I want to be entertaining to a broad swathe of ages. The all in all ages overpromises, but it's still a goal I want to aim for. Kinda like Pixar, they make the effort to entertain both the kids and adults in their audience on different levels.

This has been a thing superhero stories have lost. By and large, they aren't all ages anymore. Every Free Comic Book Day, I struggle to find something my seven year old son can enjoy. And let me assure you, at this point, if you name a popular superhero book that was either all ages or for kids, we've read it a hundred times. There just isn't new stuff churned out for him. And I want there to be. So I'm being the change I want to see.

As for making it fun, that's just what I want from my superhero fiction these days. There are absolutely places where superhero comics can be grim and serious affairs. Watchmen is the quintessential example. But one reason Watchmen works is because there's all this fun stuff that it can be an opposing reaction to. I've just sort of grown past the point where I need superheroes to be taken seriously. Especially when "serious" means drab colors and compromising of heroic ideals rather than living them out in technicolor. I want superheroes to be a roller coaster ride again, and I think kids do as well even if they can't articulate it yet.

Make it diverse is just something that's close to my heart. My wife and I were foster parents after our son came along. We wanted to add to our family and thought that would be a great way to find the little girl that belonged with us. That got me thinking about how the stuff my son and I enjoyed just didn't have enough action heroes that would look like her. We fostered an African American boy and I couldn't shake the same thought for him. I know I'm not alone in wanting more diverse heroes, but once again, all I can do is try to be that change with my own work.


What kind of characters can we expect to see?

You can expect to see heroes! Selfless people who want to make the world a better place! It just so happens that they want to do it while wearing masks and capes! Other than that, I'm just asking myself how I can make my character base more diverse. Of the first five characters I have in mind, four of them are girls or women, two of them are mixed race, and one of them is Greek (like, ancient Greek). But they're all still multi-faceted, detailed, completely realized characters.

On the villainous side, you're going to see a similar approach to characterization and diversity, but maybe a bit less diverse than the heroes. I mean, the fact that a lot of evil people in the real world are old white guys with a lot of money will filter into my superhero work.

Maybe some examples will help. Catfight and Hell Kitten are from a recently broken home. Their mother is African American, their father is white, and they're moving in with their maternal grandfather (who just happens to have been a mystery man in the 30s and 40s). Think of these girls as the Spider-Man type. Broken home, struggling with money, but they still aspire to heroism. Catfight and Hell Kitten are my coming of age story, so they'll face villains that represent everyday troubles.

My second character (should I get that many patrons) is The Gray Angel. She's what happens if Buffy the Vampire Slayer decides to become Batman. She works in Pilgrim City. The Grim is controlled by supernatural evil and criminals...who are also usually supernaturally evil. Gray Angel is where I'll tell the horror and crime stories.

The last character I'll mention is Andromeda. She's the Andromeda from Greek myth, except she's no wilting princess. That's just the Zeus-fueled PR machine at work. When Perseus failed to show up and fight the Kraken, she yanked the chains from the cliff, dove into the Aegean, and killed it herself. She's adventured all over the place, including to the peak of Mt. Olympus where she got these stunning little strappy sandals with wings. Later, she punched Nazis and even become a warrior queen in another star system.


What kind of inspirations do you have for your villains?

I think the best villains are the opposite number of the hero. And if you have a truly great character, like Batman, you can have several opposite numbers that are nothing alike. Coming in right after that are villains that represent a problem the hero is facing or a problem from their past. The Lizard is, for Spider-Man, a mentor and father figure he couldn't save, especially from his own inner demons. And then there are villains that are just cool concepts or a twist on cool concepts. Solaris the Tyrant Sun is just epic and scary while Klarion the Witchboy is weird and scary.

So I have plans for Helena Handbasket who is, in some ways, the shadowy reflection of Catfight and Hell Kitten. She's new in town, also comes from a broken home, and has found unexpected power. But she's going to use it for her own ends instead of to help others. What will the girls do when they realize that, except for a few blessings, they could have been her?

Over in Pilgrim City, you'll meet Chilly Graves. He's a mobster who crossed the wrong guys, found himself thrown in a freezer to die, and then got dumped into unholy ground. When he awakens, he's a zombie fueled by cold. He's the "what happens when the problems you bury arise?" kind of villain (and also a twist on some favorite Batman bad guys of mine).

I don't want to give away too much, but you can see how my inspirations come through those two characters I hope.


Who do you think this project will appeal to most?

I sincerely hope it appeals to everyone who wants to read some superhero action! I mean, let's be honest. I have some ideological axes to grind that are influencing some of my creative decisions. But I don't expect these to be seen as "superheroes for girls" or "the diverse universe." I just want them to be fun, exciting, and full of wonder in the way that Spider-Man and Legion of Super-Heroes were for me when I was a kid. If along the way I get to reflect a readership that isn't being served as well as it could be, then I am totally okay with that!

Really, I just love superheroes and have for most of my life. My wife and I were discussing how she can't even imagine who I'd be without superheroes. I want to appeal most to the person that might become a lifelong fan of this incredible genre like I did. It would be one of my greatest joys as an artist if my stories were the portal through which even one person became a true believing superhero fan.

Five or So Questions with Shannon Appelcline on Designers & Dragons

Tell me a little bit about Designers & Dragons. What excites you about it?

Designers & Dragons is a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. It starts with TSR and runs through Posthuman Studios and along the way it provides complete histories for over 80 other roleplaying publishers. Each history focuses on the roleplaying production of one company, but also charts out all of its highs and lows, so you can learn about TSR's lawsuits, Palladium's Crisis of Treachery, the few times that Chaosium teetered on the edge, and much more.

This all excites me because it's the backstory of the industry. It's the tales of people who are remembered, the ones who were forgotten, and the great games they created — most of which are no longer on the shelves. It's about the companies that prospered (often in unexpected ways) and the companies that failed (usually in equally unexpected ways).

I started writing Designers & Dragons because I wanted to know what had happened to these companies of the past — where they'd disappeared to and what their stories were. I found that uncovering this knowledge was fascinating, and it appears that readers do as well!



What do you think are highlights of the 00s that new designers should really be aware of?
First, designers should look at the indie movement. Some of the early indie ideas like resource management and freeform attributes have already hit the bigger time in releases from larger publishers. However, indie games also contain lots of other interesting design like unconventional narratives, distributed authority, scene framing, and stake setting. Not all of it's appropriate for every game, but a designer should be aware of the entered toolbox, and that toolbox has been expanded a lot since the mid '90s.

Second, designers should look at the OSR movement. I'm not necessarily talking about the retroclones, but the newer games that have melded together modern design aesthetics with old-school design tropes. I think that Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG (2012) is the game that's probably done the best job of managing this merged landscape.

If you know what made the industry appealing in its early days and if you know the newest ideas about how to develop roleplaying games, then you've probably got a pretty good handle on interesting design.


What is your favorite thing to talk about in RPG history?
I love the scope of history: the fact that the RPG industry has been around for forty years and that it traces its origins back even further; the fact that its created parallel industries like modern miniatures games, CCGs, and computer RPGs. I love how you can often trace a designer's production through multiple companies, to see where they started and where they went. I love the scope within an individual company, as you see how it rises (and sometimes falls).

However, I find it just as intriguing to talk about the reasons behind all this history: why a person started a company and why they decided to create an RPG on a specific topic. I love discussing why an abrupt change occurred at a company: why an old RPG line went away or why a certain type of product was discontinued,

So I'd say those two things: the big picture and the little reasons that underlie it.


Who do you think will benefit the most from the books, and why?
My first reaction is to say that old-time gamers will benefit from Designers & Dragons the most, because the books talk about all the old companies that they remember and the old game systems they still play. Equally, the books reveal the secrets of the smaller presses that old-time gamers might have heard of, but never investigated. However, I think that newer gamers will benefit from the books too, because they're full of everything that's gone before — the companies and games that are the foundation that modern gaming is built upon.

So I'd have to say anyone who wants to learn more about the gaming industry, the companies that made it up, and the games they've produced over the last four decades.
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What do you suggest people do, aside from reading Designers & Dragons, to learn more about RPGs and the industry?
I love the old gaming magazines for what they reveal about the industry. Wizards of the Coast's Dragon Magazine Archive is awesome for the fact that it lays out 25 years of industry growth, and you can get it on eBay for about $100. The generalist magazines were also good because they tended to be full of news, interviews, and game design notes from a wide variety of companies. I'd particularly recommend The Space Gamer, Different Worlds, White Wolf, and Shadis — which together form a nice chronology from the late '70s through the '90s.

There have also been a couple of great books. Heroic Worlds, a catalog of the games of the '70s and '80s, and Playing at the World, a dense investigation of the origins of roleplaying, are particularly interesting.

Finally, there are a number of OSR blogs which do a good job of looking at the history of the industry. Grognardia was my favorite until it fizzled out, but it's still got interesting things in its archives.

Random Thoughts on Freelancing

Random thoughts about freelancing:

Freelancing is not super easy. Like, growing up I was given the impression that writers and such got paid well and lived a life of ease, just creating. How cool did that sound, right? Well, turns out it's mostly bullshit.

I say mostly because you do get to create, and that part is awesome. The pay is, depending on where you go, anywhere from abysmal to decent, unless you have a Name and Reputation and GET LUCKY. From what I've seen so far, anyway.

I've been suuuuper lucky to find a place with a few different companies and people. The first one didn't really go as I'd hoped, so I moved on. Luckily, there were people who supported me, and I found a place to do my first paid, published work through The Fate Codex. This was super cool. It also led to my current work with MWP, and eventually to work with Onyx Path and Evil Hat.

One thing I didn't expect was the impact my health would have on freelancing. I thought that working from home and freelancing was something you could always do, no matter how sick you were. I was totally freaking wrong, like, get out of here, so wrong. Not only did I lose a lot of time when I had a mental break (for lack of a better term), but I've also lost a lot of time due to an injury.

I have learned that while deadlines are important, people can be SUPER understanding when it comes to injury and illness, and I'm incredibly grateful for it. I don't know how else I would still have the work I do. I owe a lot to the people who took a leap of faith on me, and I owe the same or more to those who haven't given up on me. 

It's been exciting. The work I'm doing for MWP is small but something I've enjoyed, and I discovered through it that I really do enjoy designing mechanics - maybe even more than I enjoy writing. Totally blows my mind, to be honest. Soon, I'll be on a project with Evil Hat, which I'm not sure the secrecy level of so I'll leave it up to Fred &co. to announce it if they see fit. I finished up all but final edits on my Onyx Path work, so that'll be on its way soon.

I just feel like I'm doing a lot in a very short period of time, which is kind of good because I probably will have to cut back when I start back to school, which means picking and carefully choosing what work I can do - and I think that I have a chance at actually having choices to pick from. 

I've also met some other great freelancers along the way, and there's something I want to talk about. Soapbox time.

There are so many guys. Like SO many. And they are, from what I have seen, mostly great. But, I want to be one of many women working on a project - not one of two, or one of three, on a team of 9 or more. I know that there weren't enough women applicants in the Evil Hat Writer's Search (Fred said so on the Twitter), and that bums me out (I should note, though, that the Evil Hat project I'm on has the greatest number and proportion of women of any of the teams I've been on thus far - not for lack of other people trying, though!). I know loads of women out there totally capable of doing what I do and probably even more! I know that there are things to consider like second-shift problems, impostor syndrome, and many other things, but I'm here to say I will fight with you! I will try my best to have time to read over your applications and I will try to advocate for you when I can take the opportunity to put in a good word. 

There is an awesome list of indie gaming women going around on Twitter today, and I want to see THAT. I want to see women being awesome and creative and that's so possible, I can almost taste it. Next time there is a writer all-call, I hope to hear "We had an overwhelming number of women respond!" and I want to keep hearing it. 

Love y'all!

Design Brunches and Collaborative Creation

Some of you may be aware that my local gaming community hosts semi-regular game design brunches. We basically get together on a Sunday and chat about game design, and everyone brings a problem with them if they have it, and we'll discuss things, do rapid playtesting, try out designs, bring prototypes, and all of that. I've discussed them before, but I want to delve a little more into some of the stuff I find valuable.

The first thing is that we have a wide variety of experience levels, backgrounds, and types of expertise in the group. I, for example, am mostly a writer and player (aside from now designing), with experience playing more traditional games as well as story games. Stras is an ace playtester, a designer, and has tons of experience with trad and story games alike. He also has a lot of technical knowledge and baseline design knowledge that I don't have. John, on the other hand, is our graphics genius, and is a really good designer, with traditional experience and the same level of story games experience as me - however, both he and Stras have GM'd WAY more than me. Paul is a designer (the only one paid-published of us, I think) and writer, with a ton of trad experience and story game experience, and one of his biggest points of value (imo) is that he plays with games that most of us have not or don't anymore (like GURPs and Gumshoe). Marc is almost exclusively traditional/OSR, and has a great mind for math, and is a designer who does most of his own writing. Rachel is mostly a player, but offers a unique perspective, is a great storyteller, and provides us with a good sounding board. Jeff and Heather both have traditional and story game experience, and both offer a good player perspective. Nick, who just started coming, is a really fantastic designer and writer with a lot of experience developing his own games.

I don't think I'm forgetting anyone! I hope not.  

Reading that, I think most people can see how we'd have a huge variety of input and different perspectives at every brunch, even if some people can't make it. We also have a good group that gets along pretty well.

It's awesome. It allows us a lot of opportunities to find flaws in design, or just redirect design that seems to be going away from its purpose. We also can focus on a variety of things: writing, graphics, technique, development, and prototyping.

This week, we playtested Nick's Medical Bay 3 creation, evaluated Tabletop Blockbuster playsheets, discussed Stras's Calamity Engine (super excited about that) and looked at his art inspiration for another project he's working on, and had a long discussion about scenarios for Clash. All in a few hours! (We also talked about Patreons, Creative Commons, power dynamics in the indie RPG industry, and gatekeeping.)

The conversation about Clash was really interesting for me. One of my first scenarios is based on Romeo and Juliet and written by Stras, and I am planning on doing a couple more in the main book with some as stretch goals if/when we crowdfund. I have some great creators in mind and a few already signed up. I am hoping to make this a successful product, and I think scenarios are essential to doing that.

Anyway, one of the coolest things about this is that with all of this variety in input, we have managed to create things by collaborating. Clash would not be where it is without the input of the group, nor would Tabletop Blockbuster. I know that we have put a lot of input into Stras's Hexes and Eights (which you should check out, btw). We also often run into solving problems for each other - I've written monsters for Marc's Paramount, while John has created character sheets, free-to-use dice icons, and other such things for the group. The others have contributed so many things, it's impossible to list them all.

We've had some shakeups in people's availability so we might have to start working around an occasional design dinner but I am hoping we can keep this up. I think it's really valuable.

Do you discuss design with your group? Do you have any regular get-togethers?

Do you find you design better alone, or with outside input?

My Design Process, part 1 of ?

A lot of creators talk about their design processes, and since it's kind of a new thing to me, I wanted to write about this a little. I'm guessing I'll have more to say about it the farther along I get, so that's why this is a "part 1."

Most of the time when I do creative work, I do it on a whim. I'm still learning to create on a schedule and design in windows of time granted by my already busy schedule. I'll sit down and write a whole bunch and then leave it go or forget about it for a while.

There are two different methods by which I design: solo and collaboratively. We'll focus on solo for this post.

When I first started working on Clash, I wrote the whole thing in one big swoop and then came back to it and fiddled with it for a while later. This is how it tends to go when I work on my own. I will come up with an idea, basically blow my load, and then take forever to get back to it and really work on it and make it right. It's even harder when I add in an editorial process, which I think is the biggest challenge for me as a creator. It's not that I don't think my work needs to be edited - it does - it's that the editorial process exhausts me. I feel like I can't satisfy my editor or anyone giving me feedback. Every comment is like a cut. I'm getting better, but it's still a huge challenge.

I am also still learning how to effectively research. My current research process for projects involves about 10 open Chrome tabs, open books scattered across my desk, and using my phone to e-mail people for questions while I read. I never read other game books deeply while researching because I don't want to be too strongly influenced, but I skim and filter through for techniques and tools. I also read other people's analysis of game rules.

For me, designing is learning. I know I'm still a n00b and that it's going to continue to be challenging, but I think that I am making good progress. I'm hoping to have Clash as an ashcan at Origins and Gen Con, and soon thereafter take it to crowdfunding. While I'm doing that, we have continued work on Tabletop Blockbuster, and my larp, Girls' Slumber Party WOO!

Next time I'll write a little about the differences between designing a froofy story game like Clash, a more traditional style game like Tabletop Blockbuster, and a larp like Girls' Slumber Party WOO!

Please comment with questions! I like to discuss this kind of thing with my readers. Tell me about your game design process - link me to any blog posts you have done about this subject!

New Patreon is Up!

I've started a Patreon campaign to support the blog.

There are a lot of reasons for it. The primary reason? I want to keep supporting indie creators by putting their names and info on my blog and promoting their work.

It's also because I really hope to do more with the blog. Thoughty has been around for a while now in different incarnations, and it would mean a lot to me for it to keep going and growing. I think the big thing is that I want to be able to produce varied content - vlogs, audio, Five or So, design posts, and fiction posts. The Patreon will make that a little bit easier on me.

As a writer, I'm trying to teach myself to put real value in my own words, and I think that this is an essential part of it. I won't be counting every blog post for the Patreon, and no blog posts will be locked behind a paywall. I'm hoping that I can just produce more content with more variety, better research, and a wider audience.

Check out the Patreon if you get the chance!

Best,

Brie

Five or So Questions with Epidiah Ravachol on Swords Without Master

Tell me about Swords Without Master. How excited are you?

I could almost throw up, I'm so excited. And wracked with fear. This project has been on my plate for almost four years now, and it's come to mean a lot of things to me. It is one of the starting points for the journey that has led me to Worlds Without Master. So it's quite fitting that it should be a part of the ezine.

By the time this interview is up on the web, Swords Without Master will probably be out and I'll be feeling a whole different set of emotions. But right now I'm in the limbo between being done with my part of the game and awaiting its release. This is a tough place for me to be. I get real antsy and the brain starts cataloging the most annoying of all possible futures. I get in a lot of imaginary Internet fights during this time. History has shown that none of them actually come true, but a boy can dream.

But I am excited! I cannot wait to see what folks make of all the new stuff that's available for the game since "The City of Fire & Coin." And I'm eager to start working on the next step, even as I debate what that next step is. I have a trilogy of shorter games designed to teach the best practices for playing Swords Without Master that I may turn my attention to soon. Or I may indulge in my bestiary addiction and start putting together a Book of Perils for the game.

But there is no refreshing splash of cool water like writing fiction right after crossing a massive desert of game text. And I am secretly most excited about that.


Wolfspell was a huge hit. Tell me a little about your inspiration and design process. What made this cool game happen?

Wolfspell begins with the short story "One Winter's Due." The idea of two badass sisters who must transform themselves into wolves in order to fulfill conflicting oaths came to me at my own sister's wedding. The story was an absolute pleasure to write, but long before I had finished it the game designer in me began lamenting that I "wasted" such a good premise on, of all things,fiction. What followed was a mighty battle of guilt and passive-aggression betwixt the two halves of Eppy until an uneasy peace accord was reached with the compromise that both got to use the premise.

It's been a little bizarre since then. I've really enjoyed reading the play reports of Wolfspell. This is nothing new to me, and I often enjoy hearing what people are doing with my games. But since this one started as fiction first . . . it may be a bit like the difference between a composer hearing someone play their music and a musician hearing someone cover their song. Cool, but definitely a new experience that took a bit to get used to.


For those of us newer to your work, tell us about 'The City of Fire & Coin."

"The City of Fire & Coin" is a free preview adventure for Swords Without Master. You can download it here: http://dig1000holes.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/the-city-of-fire-coin/

It came out in June of 2012. It's a bit of an experiment in game text. The whole thing is meant to be read out loud as you play your first game. So it presents the rules in a particular fashion modeled on how I teach the game when I run my demos, which, as it turns out, is very different from how rules are typically presented in a game text.

This method has its advantages and its disadvantages. You can open the PDF and start playing right away, without anyone in your group having read the rules before. And many have done so. But it does not make a particularly good reference book. The rules are arranged in the order you will need to learn them, not by associated concept. That plus having to read as if the rules were being read to you, make things a little difficult to look up. A bit like having to find the right spot to watch in an instructional video.

"The City of Fire & Coin" is meant to be part of a larger whole. The idea is that the eventual form Swords Without Master will take a number of different approaches to the rules, so people can pick and choose the ones that work for them.

There's a lot more to the game what what's in the preview, but it gives a really good look at the basics. "The City of Fire & Coin" contains just about all the rules you'll find in the first half of the Swords Without Master text that appears in issue three of Worlds Without Master. And those are basically the only rules you should be using the first few times you play. Once you get a hang of the system, you can start adding some of the other stuff found in issue three.


What has been the biggest challenge of Swords Without Master?

I fell just a bit too in love with it. I can get caught up in big projects, in a recursion of revision, trying to hammer out one, giant, beautiful, perfect product. You can always add something to a project like that and it could go on forever.

Last year, when I put out Vast & Starlit and What is a Roleplaying Game?, both of which are about 500 words long, I had a bit of a crisis. The concept to execution times on those games were tiny. Especially compared to the four or so years I had been plugging away at Swords Without Master at that point. It started to seem a bit hopeless. Why the hell was I writing all these words for something that I've explained in 10 minutes? I honestly considered abandoning the project at that point.

That is, ultimately, why I decided to publish it in Worlds Without Master. To force myself to write a much smaller version of it--though it still turned out quite a bit larger than I had planned for--and to give myself a venue for future exploration. It turned out that last bit was the most important bit. As I was stumbling over my deadlines, it was helpful to remind myself that I don't have to shove all my design into this one text. I could leave some ideas out for now and concentrate on the most important parts.

In the end, I shoved a lot into there anyway, but it was still tremendously helpful knowing I didn't have to shove it all in there.


What did you enjoy most about creating Wolfspell - the mechanics, writing "One Winter's Due," both, something else?

That game fell together so easily. Or, at least, that's how I remember it. I think there was a few early drafts that were just wrong, wrong, wrong. But when I hit on what I was doing, it just flew out. And the early playtest was pure joy.

Oh, but the best part was researching the wolves! What a lovely excuse to sit down and watch whatever I could find on the Internet about wolves.

Five or So Questions with Matthijs Holter on The Devil's Cub

Today I have an interview with Matthijs Holter, creator of Archipelago, about his book "The Devil's Cub" and it's upcoming sequel.


Tell me a little bit about "The Devil's Cub." What's the story?

The main character is a 150-year-old noaide - a Sami shaman. When she encounters the devil on a lonely forest road, she decides to seduce him - and becomes pregnant with his child. So the question is, what will she do with it? Her plan is to use it to gain more power, but will she manage to do that, and how? How will it change her?


What made you choose this time period and these folklore elements?

It's set in the 1800s in Norway, which, at that time, was a place of contrasts and changes. A few families became extremely wealthy selling timber to warring countries, while most people were poor, often starving. The church tried to educate and civilize the population, but the population often didn't give a shit - or, rather, they stuck with their traditions and beliefs. In the book, of course, most of those beliefs are true, and I get to play with a lot of half-forgotten elements from our history and folklore. Some are pretty horrible! There was something called the utbord, for instance, which is the spirit of an unchristened child; the image of an undead baby, buried somewhere in the forest, screaming… It's pretty bad. And it says a lot of things about the culture at that time; about religion, about the expectations towards women, about how children were treated…

I wrote a game in this setting in 2004, "Draug", and did a lot of research. Back then, I tried to be very historically correct; now I'm having fun with it, using history and superstition to make a great story.


You used some methods from gaming to help write the book. What were they and how did they help with the process?

The most important one was what Ron Edwards calls "Driving with bangs". A bang is something that happens to a character that they have to do something about. Often you, as a player (or writer), don't know what they will do until it happens. The situation that starts this whole book is a bang: "You're pregnant with the devil. Now what?"

Another one was to use phrases from my own game, Archipelago. (It's available for free on the internet). I didn't do this very consciously, but at points I definitely thought to myself "More details!" or "That won't be so easy!"

And then there's what Vincent Baker calls "Play to find out what happens" - in this case, write to find out what happens. I didn't plan ahead a lot; I was just curious to see where the story would go, and was often surprised at what the characters chose to do. There was a lot of laughing, shaking my head, and cursing in frustration as I saw their stories unfold.


Tell me about the sequel. What can I look forward to? When is it coming out?

I can't tell you too much, of course, because that would spoil it! But we do see some major changes in the protagonist. She meets new dangers that are, in their way, much worse than the devil ("Better the devil you know" is an apt expression here). She also gets a new circle of friends - or, should I say, her first ever circle of friends, as she tends to be a loner. There are ghosts, unexpected sexual attractions, a huge fire and some pretty good parties. It's a little like "Pride and Prejudice" with lesbian witches.

It's coming out this spring - we're editing it now!

What was the biggest challenge writing "The Devil's Cub" and its sequel? Do you have any suggestions for how to deal with it for new writers?

The biggest challenge… Actually telling myself and the world that this was what I wanted to do, and then doing something about it. I took time off from work, dropped off the internet, didn't see a lot of people for a while, and just wrote, wrote, wrote. And once I got that momentum going, getting up every day and knowing "Today I'm writing", the book took on a life of its own.

My suggestions for new writers:

- Decide whether you want to make money or have fun. You'll probably never make money from this, so have fun instead.

- If you want to write, you have to write. Read some, too. But mostly just write, write, write. Open your document and start typing words. If it's crap, you can throw it away later, but while you're writing, you can't actually know if what you've written is great or terrible!

- Use a treadmill. Write while walking. It's great! You get flow, your brain gets oxygen and comes up with lots of ideas, you get a little exercise along the way. Amazing.

- Last, but not least: Get a good editor. I'm working with Lizzie Stark right now, and really enjoying that. Talk in person (or via Skype).


Thanks to Matthijs for a great interview!



Author's web page: http://matthijsholter.wordpress.com/

"The Devil's Cub" e-book is available on these platforms:
- Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HFPCV2I
- iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/no/book/the-devils-cub/id789930015?l=nb&mt=11
- Lulu: http://www.lulu.com/shop/matthijs-holter/the-devils-cub/ebook/product-21375206.html
- Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-devils-cub-matthijs-holter/1118048655

Five or So Questions with Marshall Miller on The Warren

I interviewed Marshall Miller about his work on The Warren, as well as his Dungeon World Starters.

Tell me about The Warren.

The Warren is a tabletop roleplaying game about survival and community where players take on the role of rabbits. In the game, rabbits are faced with an imperiled warren and a naturalistic world - it's up to them to figure out how to make the best of things. Longer term, the game leans toward generational play and focuses on the warren itself, gently pushing players to adopt new characters periodically. The game takes inspiration from Richard Adams' book Watership Down and builds various Apocalypse World Engine (AWE) games, primarily Apocalypse World and Dungeon World. The Warren started out as a little 6-page hack called Lapins & Lairs that I released into the wilds last summer. After some playtests, retooling, and fleshing out, I'm releasing the expanded rules text into the wild for further playtesting and feedback. You can find the playtest materials here.


What motivated you to make the game? What made you choose Apocalypse World as the base for the game?

I think this feeling is pretty common: everyone and their brother read a book during grade school and yet there you are, years later, reading it for the first time. That's what happened with me and Watership Down. When I got to the part where [spoiler] Fiver has his vision, it hit me - Fiver just opened his brain to the psychic maelstrom! [/spoiler]  As the story went on, I couldn't stop seeing it through the lens of Apocalypse World. I remember this all really vividly because it was also the weekend that the Dungeon World launched on Kickstarter and my brain space was already steeping in AWE. I saw how Dungeon World was taking the idea of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and powering it with the apocalypse and reckoned it could be done with Bunnies & Burrows as well. The idea has been tugging at me ever since.


What techniques did you use to hack it?

Apocalypse World Engine games get a lot of play at conventions, so one of my goals was to make a game that focused on that one-shot format. The Warren features a single rabbit playbook that all the players use; however, each character picks a unique move for their rabbit. That means cutting straight to talking about who is taking which move and what that says about their rabbit. Tracking experience and making fronts are often skipped over in con games so I cut away the experience mechanism and reconfigured the front mechanism to be more like aspects (Fate) and monsters (Dungeon World). Also gone are the direct conflict moves like ‘hack and slash’ or ‘seize by force.’ Instead, players have moves for running away and braving things that scare them. Consequently, this is not a game where you tackle opposition head on – instead rabbits must be fast and clever. "Sex moves" from Apocalypse World were a good fit because, you know, bunnies are known for their prodigious reproductive rate. It was important to get the mating/birthing moves right - I hope I succeeded. Lastly, because this is a game about survival and community, I wanted to make it easy for characters to regularly die or step back to become staples of the community. I always liked the ‘retire to safety’ move in Apocalypse World so I brought it to the forefront and made it a move everyone had access to all the time. Interestingly, doing so also allows players to use it to sacrifice control of their character in dramatic ways – much like dashing the Jenga tower in Dread. Between the birthing and retiring moves, the game lends itself to generational play if you’re going to play more than one session.


What kind of players would like The Warren?

Thus far, the people who have expressed an interest in The Warren: 1) already play other Apocalypse World Engine games and are excited to see the system go in a new direction, 2) like Watership Down, Bunnies & Burrows, or animal games in general and are curious to see what all the fuss over AWE games is about, or 3) are looking for a game that they can play with their kids and... oh! look! bunnies! A big reason for expanding on the original hack was to clarify the animal genre to players who weren't familiar with Watership Down and to better introduce the AWE to players who were new to the 'system.' I also included some alternatives to the sex moves to make it friendlier to younger audiences.


You've done some Dungeon World Adventure Starters. What's your process for creating them?

Dungeon Starters are one-sheet supplements for running the first session of a Dungeon World game that collect a bunch of thematically related imagery and mechanical tidbits for the GM to pull from. Around the time when the red book version of Dungeon World came out, I was wondering what a published adventure for Dungeon World might look like. It couldn't dictate a story or series of events, it couldn't fill in all the gaps, and it couldn't make many assumptions because players would be contributing details too. The solution was to build Dungeon Starters around loaded questions for the GM to ask. The loaded questions convey both setting and situation details and ties the characters to them. From there, you can create a cloud of setting elements that relate to those questions (e.g. custom moves, items, spells, monsters, etc.). My best advice is: mashup two or more settings or story ideas you like to create something with a unique feel, don't waste any chance to reinforce the theme or tone of the starter when creating elements, brainstorm more elements than you need and then pair them down so that only the most compelling and synergistic elements remain, and remember that you're making a reusable document - maximize the number of different directions you could spur the fiction depending on what subset of elements you introduce to the fiction. I've got some more commentary on Dungeon Starters and a handful of examples here.


Are you working on any other projects? 

Doesn't everyone have a half dozen game designs percolating in the back of their mind? Right now I'm really excited about the plethora of small games being published and the blossoming of various regional LARP scenes. I'm having fun dipping my toes into those waters. I also really enjoy helping other people to brainstorm, playtest, and develop their games – collaboration is the best!

My Three Things

John Adamus wrote about depression, and it really hit me. Content warning for talk about self-harm, suicide, and depression/mental illness.

http://writernextdoor.com/2014/02/02/the-writer-and-whats-important/


My three things? They change sometimes. But here's the now. They're a little similar to John's, so my bad! But still.

Gaming. I really enjoy the community and the experience that surrounds and is gaming. I don't think I could give up gaming even if I wanted to, it's become such a huge part of me. I like making games, I like playing them, I like talking about them and reading about them. Games are a whole world for me.

Food. I love eating food. I don't make it a lot (lack of energy, etc.) but when I do it's normally fantastic. I really dig getting something new and interesting and trying it out, going out to expensive restaurants for the whole experience - food is life. It's happiness. It's sustenance. It never leaves me feeling lonely or judged or hungry.

Sex. This is kind of inappropriate or TMI or whatever, but I love sex. I love learning about it. I love reading Oh Joy, Sex Toy! I think toys and kink are awesome even if I don't use them or participate in it. I love having sex, and talking about sex, and hearing stories about sex. I even like saying "sex!" It's an expression of love, it's fun, it's a way to share intimacy, and it's just emotion translated into physical action, and that's awesome.

Five or So Questions with Mark Diaz Truman and Epidiah Ravachol

I interviewed Mark Diaz Truman about The Fate Codex, and Epidiah Ravachol about Worlds Without Master, both Patreon projects. 

First, Mark!

Tell us a little about The Fate Codex. What goals do you have for the project?

The Fate Codex is a mostly-monthly e-zine showcasing the Fate roleplaying system. Each month(ish), we'll publish an e-zine that features new Fate Systems, Essays from Fate experts, Quick Start Adventures, and Short Fiction in the Fate style--all featuring new and experienced voices in the Fate Community.

My goals are diverse. I hope to bring in new folks to the system with a set of e-zines that are easy to pick up and play and to entertain experienced Fate players with Systems and Essays that expand what the system can do. I'm also hoping to feature new perspectives on Fate from a diverse set of creators!

Finally, I want to see people get paid for the great work they're doing. Folks like Ryan Macklin, for example, are constantly pushing out new ideas to the Fate Community, but often as unpaid blog posts and community discussions. I don't want to replace that work--these discussions are so valuable--but I think there's clearly a hunger for polished pieces that present finished ideas.


What motivated you to create The Fate Codex?

Since the Fate Core Kickstarter blew up the interwebs in 2012/2013, Fate has been a big part of my gaming experience. I was lucky enough to write Timeworks for Fate Worlds, followed by work developing Wicked Fate and Do: Fate of the Flying Temple, and now Fate is a regular feature at my table. I love developing these bigger projects, but there's also a lot of little stuff that I'm working

At the same time, I'm also an active member of the Fate Core Google+ Community, and I see so much interesting and different thinking coming through that group. Unfortunately, much of it is lost, pushed down the Community page and inaccessible to new folks. It's like trying to drink from a firehouse of awesome sometimes!

It occurred to me that I could kill two birds with one stone by creating a venue for this kind of work (both my own and the work of others) that would be curated and polished. And when I saw Eppy's Worlds Without Master Patreon campaign do so well the last few months, my brain slowly slowly slowly kicked over to thinking about some the work I do in Fate being a good fit for that system as well.


What benefit does the Patreon model provide for you, as a creator?

More than anything else, it gives me a budget to bring in great people. Magpie Games is lucky enough to have some cash on hand from our work on our previous Kickstarters, but it's tough to estimate demand for something like a mostly-monthly e-zine. Knowing that I've got over 250 subscribers who are excited to get their copy of The Fate Codex through Patreon means that I can hire great people to produce great pieces for future issues. We're already talking about Issues 3 and 4, and I'm excited to be able to pay people for that work right now instead of waiting for several months' worth of revenue to come in before we can start planning Issue 2.

What is the biggest challenge to creating and distributing an e-zine like The Fate Codex through Patreon?

One of the biggest challenges is getting a regular flow of content. There's a lot of good stuff out there, but gathering up great pieces, editing them, and laying them out on a regular basis is tough. I'm thankful that Patreon structures the payment system so that I don't have to think much about how much content to produce, but staying on top of it all is a big job. Luckily, I've been doing these kinds of projects for the last few years, so I've got some experience herding game designers.


What are you looking forward to the most with the project?

Right now? Our first issue! We're deep into writing, editing, and laying out our first issue, and I can't wait to show the Fate community what we've put together. It's exciting stuff.

I know that down the road I'm also really excited about the potential to bring new voices to the table--especially folks that haven't had a chance to show off what they can do in Fate. It's a wonderful system, and I want to bring in new voices that will take the system to interesting places. In many ways, I think The Fate Codex could be a wonderful place for new designers to get started with Fate--it's small enough to give folks a chance to try new things and big enough to have a real audience for good work.

--

Thanks to Mark for the interview! Make sure to check out The Fate Codex, which will soon feature a short story by yours truly!

-----------------------

Next, Epidiah!

Tell us a little about Worlds Without Master. What's it all about?

Worlds Without Master is an ezine of sword & sorcery fiction and games. It’s as much about sword & sorcery as it is about that intersection between fiction and gaming. I want the reader to feel as if they’ve been shown the paths to a myriad of worlds for them to explore in whatever way they wish.


What motivated you to create Worlds Without Master?

It’s been in my head for a while now, and perhaps even longer. Sword and sorcery was the genre of my youth that I abandoned for several decades for many reasons, some very much misguided. About four or five years ago, I began the used-book store hunt for Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stuff. I remembered really enjoying his books when I read them as a teen and wondered if they held up. They did. And what’s more, the parts of them that struck a chord with teenage Eppy read as delicious satire to adult Eppy. I began to find new things about the genre that I missed back then, but now captivated me.

This set me on the path towards making the Swords Without Master game. While struggling through the forging of this game, all these proto-stories kept welling up from within, always to be cast into the future. Once this game was published, I promised myself that I would set pen to paper and finally write these things out. I just needed to get this game published first. But I wanted the physical object of the game to be something I did not have the power to create just yet. So everything kept being pushed into tomorrow.

In the summer of 2013 I started to look for places to submit my stories and a surprising number of ezines were only offering free copies as compensation for my work. As my frustration with this was on the rise, I became aware of Patreon and it all sort of tumbled out from there.


What benefit does the Patreon model provide for you, as a creator?

So many benefits! It allows me to write the stories I want to write, hire folks to edit and proofread those stories, dream of artists I want to see illustrate those stories, pay those artist to do just that and then distribute those stories to an audience who is not only eager to receive them, but will pay me for them!

By only charging the patrons when an issue is released, Patreon has relieved me of a lot of the pressure to release on unrealistic schedule.

By letting me know roughly how much money will come in after an issue is released, Patreon eviscerated 90% of the risk involved in publishing.

The traditional publishing model has evolved a number of vestigial organs that now exist only to second-guess what the audience wants. Patreon surgically removes these obstructive organs and puts me in direct communication with my audience. This closer relationship with the audience is a powerful motivator. You can look at your Patreon page, see how many people are eager for you to create, and more importantly, know their names. This is a different relationship than before, and it’s one I intend to explore further.


What is the biggest challenge to creating and distributing an e-zine like Worlds Without Master through Patreon?

There is a deluge coming. At the moment, I’m holding back a liquid wall of fiction, games and art. A flood of sword & sorcery that wants to sweep across the land and alter the landscape forever. I’ve got amazing works from talent writers, artists and designers pushing and shoving at me. And I want to set them loose. But I have until the Patron Horde is huge enough to take them head-on. So at the moment, each issue is the merest trickle of what this ezine can be. The biggest challenge is waiting that out.

What would you say is your biggest achievement with Worlds Without Master?

“One Winter’s Due,” my story in the second issue. Before that, it was “Strange Bireme.” With a little luck, each story will be a slightly bigger achievement than the last.

--

Thanks, Epidiah, for the interview! Keep an eye out for Worlds Without Master on Patreon!

Five or So Questions with Martin Ralya on New Game Day

I interviewed Martin Ralya from Gnome Stew about New Game Day, upcoming on February 2, 2014, as well as Gnome Stew and Engine Publishing. Today's Five or So is a special edition to give people time to plan for the holiday!

Tell me a little bit about Gnome Stew, and about this new holiday you're starting, New Game Day. Why should I be excited?

Gnome Stew is a system-neutral, multi-author GMing blog that's been running since 2008, with over 2,400 articles (all free). We've had almost 2,000,000 visitors to date.

New Game Day is my attempt to jump-start a gaming holiday in the vein of GM's Day (March 4): a free annual event for tabletop gamers worldwide, dedicated to playing new RPGs and board games.

You should be excited about it for lots of reasons: it's fun to play new games, and even more fun to share them with friends; it's fun to celebrate our hobby with shared events like this one; and because playing new games expands your horizons in good ways.

It was one of those ideas that hit me and wouldn't let go until I'd done something about it. It seemed so simple that I was surprised not to find it out there already. So I put together a website, hired my friend Darren Hardy to create a logo for it, and now I'm trying to get the word out.


What goals do you have with this New Game Day?

New Game Day happens on 2/2 (yes, it's also Groundhog Day -- and, this year, Super Bowl Sunday), and the idea is that folks will get together to play new RPGs and board games, or just one or the other, and share their love of games.


Who should be interested in the New Game Day?

Anyone who plays tabletop RPGs and board games (including wargames, card games, etc.). There's a lot of overlap between those two hobbies, but if you don't already do both New Game Day is a great excuse to try the other one. And if you do already play both kinds of game regularly, take it as a challenge instead: Play something outside your comfort zone, or see how many games you can play in one day.

Gnome Stew is also sponsoring a giveaway to celebrate New Game Day, with over $300 in prizes just for dropping by to tell us what you play on 2/2 (Click here for the giveaway!).


Tell me a little about your work with Engine Publishing. What's new and upcoming?

I started Engine Publishing in 2009, and I've worked with the authors of Gnome Stew, as well as other talented folks, to produce a book a year since 2010: Eureka, Masks, Never Unprepared, and Odyssey.

Our fifth book, also a system-neutral resource for GMs, is currently in editing. I'm not ready to talk about it yet, save to say that it's different than the first four but should appeal to the same audience.


What big plans does Gnome Stew have for 2014?

We're going to be hiring a couple of new gnomes (authors) to replace Patrick Benson and Kurt Schneider, who left the site in 2013. We have a conference call and a bit of discussion between us and posting that announcement, but it should happen sometime next month.

Apart from that, we're going to keep doing what we've enjoyed doing so much for the past six years: writing about GMing, talking about GMing with our readers, collaborating on Engine Publishing books and other projects, and featuring articles by our readers.